Why dance?
It enhances balance, rhythm and co-ordination, encouraging expression and developing a social aptitude that can easily become a lifelong activity.  Dance does not have to be about outside shape and form, it’s about self-confidence, and in effect, is exercise that conceals exercise.  It is a very natural response to rhythm that takes us back to the carefree abandon of childhood.

• Heart: A good session of line dancing for example, can boost your heart rate to 120 beats per minute, which is equivalent to 45 minutes of intense aerobic exercise.
• Muscle: Dancing sharpens your isometric and isotonic resistance, allowing you to shape your muscles without adding unnecessary mass.
• Posture: Dancing encourages you to stand tall, step lively, and get into the habit of naturally aligning your spine.
• Balance: Even if you’ve got two left feet and no natural sense of rhythm, dancing a series of small, measured steps will help coordinate your quest for equilibrium.
• Bones: All that bootie-shakin’, rattlin’, rollin’, twistin’ and swingin’ can help prevent osteoporosis and strengthen your weight-bearing bones.
• Social confidence: Any kind of dancing is a social skill that will make you feel at ease in any company and in any cultural arena.  

What is line dancing?
Line dancing is an innovative and fun dancesport for dancers of all levels, genders and ages and incorporates established dance styles and techniques with certain adjustments for the unique properties of line dancing.

It is performed by a number of people all facing in the same direction and moving in lines where everybody does the same steps.  A line dance consists of a sequence of steps choreographed by a line dance choreographer to a specific piece of music and these are repeated several times changing direction from wall to wall.  Line dances are defined by the number of counts in a dance, level of difficulty and number of walls it is repeated to.  Counts are the number of beats one sequence of the dance runs over.

Generally speaking the higher the count, the more difficult the dance is likely to be, as there will be more steps to remember.

Line dancing is a fun, social way of exercising whereby you meet all kinds of different people and make new friends.  Another advantage of line dancing is that you don’t need a partner, so you can come to socials alone and join in as you’re dancing with a lot of people at once.

We also have a group of dancers who do demonstrations and teach an easy line dance or two at different events such as work functions, birthday parties, charity events etc.

Where did line dancing have it’s origins?
Despite its association with cowboy boots and Stetsons, line dancing originally had little to do with the country and western scene.  It definitely does not date back to the days of the cowboys.  Line dancing first started in the USA, some time in the late 1970’s to early 1980’s and was performed to disco music as much as to country music and line dancers would dance to whatever was played. Few of the dances actually had their origins in country dancing.  Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achy Breaky Heart” started the “country” line dance craze  when a very well-known instructor/choreographer from Nashville, Melanie Greenwood, choreographed the original dance to this song.  Line dancing spread like “a vine”, especially to the UK but also to the rest of Europe and with the help of people like Rob Fowler, Maggie Gallagher and many others, it became one of the most sought after and enjoyed dance sports in World.